Here is a message I received this weekend. I responded by asking them to
send me a photo (their description isn't exactly a model of completeness).
I thought I'd forward it to tweeters, so the best birding minds in the
region can think about what this bird might have been. I have no idea. I
thought of a jaeger, with the blue legs, but it's an odd time of year for
one. Pomarines do winter in small numbers, but it's the Long-tailed that
has blue legs. I hope their photo is recognizable.

>Hello: I am trying to find out what kind of a gull I recently saw. The
>location was on shore from Barclay Sound on Vancouver Island. When I
>first spotted it, it was inland about 2 miles on a logging road (on the
>ground). When I approached by car, it took off and flew along the road,
>never rising up to tree top (50 - 80 feet). There were creeks and 1 small
>lake along the road, it ignored them, it landed a couple of times but flew
>off as I approached. It finally landed at a wide spot and I pulled up
>beside it. It looked very gull like, on the smallish size (smaller than a
>herring gull), it had quite distinctive bright blue legs- similar to a
>boobie. However it landed gracefully, had a slender neck. It readily
>accepted some chunks of bread we threw out. We did get a picture of it,
>not good but does show the leg color.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html